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Leica Sofort 2June 13, 2024
Grand Seiko SBGX261February 23, 2023
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  • Resolving the iPhone resolution

    Phil Plait: So in my opinion, what Jobs said was fine. Soneira, while technically correct, was being picky. So I mildly disagree with him about that. I had to laugh, though: his dismissing (near the bottom of the Wired article) of the Quattro TV’s use of a fourth, yellow, pixel is dead on. When I…

    Phil Plait:

    So in my opinion, what Jobs said was fine. Soneira, while technically correct, was being picky. So I mildly disagree with him about that. I had to laugh, though: his dismissing (near the bottom of the Wired article) of the Quattro TV’s use of a fourth, yellow, pixel is dead on. When I first heard of that I knew right away it was a silly claim.
    Still, the headline used by Wired.com was clearly incorrect; Jobs wasn’t falsely advertising the iPhone’s capabilities at all. I’ll note that I like Wired magazine quite a bit, and what we have here is most likely just an overzealous editor. But a lot of people read the headlines and it taints their view; someone reading that article may be more likely to think Jobs, once again, has overblown a product to excite people. He didn’t.

  • I Was Wrong About the iPad

    Clive Crook: Contrary to my earlier thoughts, it not only surpasses the Kindle but for many uses supplants the laptop too. Far from being neither one thing nor the other, it  is all things to all men–a good thing in a piece of electronics. The Kindle is only better if you need to read in…

    Clive Crook:

    Contrary to my earlier thoughts, it not only surpasses the Kindle but for many uses supplants the laptop too. Far from being neither one thing nor the other, it  is all things to all men–a good thing in a piece of electronics.

    The Kindle is only better if you need to read in sunlight – otherwise buy an iPad it is better in all other circumstances.

  • Facebook: Calacanis Is Lying

    A lot has been going on about Jason Calacanis’ Facebook profile these past few days. It started with Calacanis saying that his Facebook account had been reactivated (Facebook takes 14 days to actually delete the account once you request it) and that he was not the one that reactivated it. Now Facebook has come back…

    A lot has been going on about Jason Calacanis’ Facebook profile these past few days. It started with Calacanis saying that his Facebook account had been reactivated (Facebook takes 14 days to actually delete the account once you request it) and that he was not the one that reactivated it. Now Facebook has come back to say that they only way this could happen is if he explicitly clicked a cancel deletion button.

    Whoever is to blame it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Facebook has made it overly hard to delete your account. If a user clicks delete then you need to delete it on the spot (after confirmation) – you nobody needs the 14 days to “think about it”.

  • Silvio Rizzi’s Reeder for iPad

    This app is amazingly good, best RSS reader on any platform ever. I can’t decide if Instapaper or Reeder is the best iPad app, they are that close.

    This app is amazingly good, best RSS reader on any platform ever. I can’t decide if Instapaper or Reeder is the best iPad app, they are that close.

  • 8 iPhone 4 Alternatives to Consider

    Umm yeah, nope. He even recommends a 5″ yet to be released tablet, WTF.

    Umm yeah, nope. He even recommends a 5″ yet to be released tablet, WTF.

  • iPhone 4 Miscellany

    Shawn Blanc: When the 20% battery warning comes up on my 3GS it means I go into iPhone survival mode, keeping usage to a minimum to prolong death before I am able to charge it next. But on the 4 a 20% warning will simply mean charge at my earliest convenience (the same way it…

    Shawn Blanc:

    When the 20% battery warning comes up on my 3GS it means I go into iPhone survival mode, keeping usage to a minimum to prolong death before I am able to charge it next. But on the 4 a 20% warning will simply mean charge at my earliest convenience (the same way it is for the iPad).

  • How Does Office Web Apps Compare to Google Docs?

    Great look at the two platforms.

    Great look at the two platforms.

  • Safari 5 tested: Chrome, Opera still have JavaScript edge

    One thing is clear: Firefox has lost its edge.

    One thing is clear: Firefox has lost its edge.

  • Adobe sees Flash on over 250 mln smartphones by 2012-end

    Sue Zeidler: By predicting its Flash Player would be in over 250 million smartphones by the end of 2012, Adobe said it expects its Flash software to be supported in 53 per cent of the more than 300 million smartphones expected to ship in 2012. I can’t say that I see this happening – ever.

    Sue Zeidler:

    By predicting its Flash Player would be in over 250 million smartphones by the end of 2012, Adobe said it expects its Flash software to be supported in 53 per cent of the more than 300 million smartphones expected to ship in 2012.

    I can’t say that I see this happening – ever.

  • Mobile Apps to Hit $32 Billion in Five Years

    Don’t be fooled into thinking that mobile app developers are small time – they are the next wave of success (a lot already are making tons of money).

    Don’t be fooled into thinking that mobile app developers are small time – they are the next wave of success (a lot already are making tons of money).

  • Twitter Buys an Analytics Company

    Can they make Twitter profitable is the real questions – they sure are acquiring like it is 1999.

    Can they make Twitter profitable is the real questions – they sure are acquiring like it is 1999.

  • Dell in Talks to Resolve Intel Inquiry With S.E.C.

    Miguel Helft: Dell also said that it had set aside $100 million for a possible settlement of these allegations, as well a separate long-standing investigation by the S.E.C. into its accounting practices. Nothing says innocent like willingly paying $100 million.

    Miguel Helft:

    Dell also said that it had set aside $100 million for a possible settlement of these allegations, as well a separate long-standing investigation by the S.E.C. into its accounting practices.

    Nothing says innocent like willingly paying $100 million.

  • Yeah, but What About the Battery?

    Yesterday I was catching up on my Instapaper queue and ended up reading an abundance of Sprint EVO 4G reviews – about five of them. The majority of the reviews complained in one form or another about the devices battery life. That really got me thinking about the battery life in today’s gadgets and what…

    Yesterday I was catching up on my Instapaper queue and ended up reading an abundance of Sprint EVO 4G reviews – about five of them. The majority of the reviews complained in one form or another about the devices battery life. That really got me thinking about the battery life in today’s gadgets and what we (as users) really need out of a battery.

    Here are what I think are most important when it comes to battery life in all mobile devices:

    1. All day life – this is not 8 or 12 hours of life, nor is it 24 hours. I want the device to last for the duration that I need it on an average day. No one talks on their phone for 24 hours a day, so a 24 hour battery is not needed. We do however use out laptops for more than 4 hours – we need more life out of these batteries.
    2. Fast recharging – the best example of this I can think of was back when I was 12 I had a really cool stable of remote control cars (about four) that all used a rechargeable Ni-Cad battery. If you remember these batteries (early cellphones and laptops used them) you had to charge them for about 3-4 hours and in my remote control cars they lasted about 20-30 minutes. I had about 4 of these batteries (they went bad fast too) and so I could at most play with my remote control cars for about two hours on any given day – the rest of the day would be spent charging. Today’s batteries or Li-Ion and are far better. They last longer and charge faster – but how fast is fast enough. For starters you should not have to charge a device for longer than you can use it for.

      Small gadgets like iPods, Cellphones, Bluetooth Headsets mostly fast charge to 80% of full then they trickle charge the rest of the way. This method helps users and prolongs battery life. This is great – but where the hell is it in laptops? My Macbook Pro charges for hours before it is 100% and I only get 4-5 hours of use (I wish I had one of those new ones with 8 hours batteries).

    3. Interchangeability – the real question is do we need to be able to swap out our batteries. If you had asked me a year ago I would have said yes. I used to carry two Macbook Pro batteries with me and a bag full of chargers. Then I said screw it and I have learned to charge when and where I can, rarely did I use all those backup chargers and batteries. It is always nice to be able to change a battery yourself, but the only time I can think of when it is really necessary is for long flights where you can’t get to a power source. The rest of the time it is easy enough to find a power source, especially if #1 gets fulfilled. To sum up: a user should be able to change the battery if it offers less than 10 hours of life – if you can squeeze more life than that out of a battery by making it non-removable, go for it.
    4. Cold weather – I hate hiking in the cold because I have to carry tons of camera batteries, they run out of juice very fast in cold weather, as do most batteries – we need this to be a non-issue.

    Back to the EVO

    That brings me to one last point – device usage. One thing that really bugged me about all the EVO reviews was that most agreed that in order to get acceptable battery life out of the device you needed to fiddle with the settings on a regular basis:

    Battery drain depends on how the phone is used, and with so many radios in the EVO it can be hit hard. I find that a little diligence is all that’s needed to stretch the battery out all day. With normal use the lowest the battery has drained on a given day is 11 percent left in the tank at day’s end. – James Kendrick

    That is just absurd. You should never have to do anything special to get the best battery life out of your device. Ever. I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but we are buying a device because it will supposedly make out lives easier, not complicated them more by making us have to turn stuff off and on when we stop and start using them.

    Apple shipped the first Macbook Pro Unibody computers with dual graphics cards that you can switch between, the catch was that you had to log out and back in to your computer if you wanted to switch – meaning that I only switch about 5% of the time that I should. They righted that wrong with recent updates to the computers allowing the computer to make the switch on the fly based on need.

    If Apple can engineer their laptops to switch between graphics cards based on need (a pretty major component of your computing system) then surely cellphone manufacturers as large as HTC and Apple can engineer a device that switched Wi-Fi / 3G on and off based on need. It is only logical.

    We need to demand better battery life – now.

  • Once you go SSD…

    Tim Van Damme: My first generation unibody MacBook Pro feels like next year’s MacBook Pro, and I didn’t even upgrade your RAM. I’m getting one next month. Can’t wait.

    Tim Van Damme:

    My first generation unibody MacBook Pro feels like next year’s MacBook Pro, and I didn’t even upgrade your RAM.

    I’m getting one next month. Can’t wait.

  • New Logitech HD WebCams

    Well that should cause Comcast to drop ‘unlimited’ internet access.

    Well that should cause Comcast to drop ‘unlimited’ internet access.

  • Why Instapaper Will Never Be Booted From the iTunes App Store

    God do I love Instapaper.

    God do I love Instapaper.

  • The Perils of FaceTime

    Sam Hey: Here’s the deal – imagine you have an iPhone 4 and the person who called you has an iPhone 4 (I know for a lot of you nerds this is a real stretch), and you take the call, and the FaceTime tone dings indicating that your caller wants to do FaceTime, and you’re…

    Sam Hey:

    Here’s the deal – imagine you have an iPhone 4 and the person who called you has an iPhone 4 (I know for a lot of you nerds this is a real stretch), and you take the call, and the FaceTime tone dings indicating that your caller wants to do FaceTime, and you’re on your couch ensconced in a wifi signal and you could do FaceTime — but you don’t want to. What do you do? “No thanks, buddy.” No matter what perfectly valid excuse you give, the inevitable interpretation on the other end of the line is “I don’t really want to see your face right now.”

  • On this Safari 5 Reader Hysteria

    Nik Fletcher: Yes, Safari does some smart stuff behind the scenes – on Lynch’s blog, his multi-page diatribe is brought into one paginated lightbox – and that eliminates ad impressions. But if Safari Reader eliminates the bullshit practice of publishers including disproportionately highly numbers of pages per article then you won’t hear any complaints from…

    Nik Fletcher:

    Yes, Safari does some smart stuff behind the scenes – on Lynch’s blog, his multi-page diatribe is brought into one paginated lightbox – and that eliminates ad impressions. But if Safari Reader eliminates the bullshit practice of publishers including disproportionately highly numbers of pages per article then you won’t hear any complaints from me. My own primary interest in reading online surprisingly goes beyond a headline. I take the time to read an article, and if Safari Reader makes reading much easier, then it’s the site’s fault for failing to make itself reasonably legible.

    Spot On.

  • Safari Reader and Content

    Fraser Speirs: Most interesting thing about Safari Reader? It shows how little actual content there is on these busy, long webpages True.

    Fraser Speirs:

    Most interesting thing about Safari Reader? It shows how little actual content there is on these busy, long webpages

    True.

  • AdMob’s Response to be Kicked Out of the App Store by Apple

    AdMob: Let’s be clear. This change is not in the best interests of users or developers. In the history of technology and innovation, it’s clear that competition delivers the best outcome. Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress. Let me be more clear, when AdMob uses…

    AdMob:

    Let’s be clear. This change is not in the best interests of users or developers. In the history of technology and innovation, it’s clear that competition delivers the best outcome. Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress.

    Let me be more clear, when AdMob uses the word ‘developers’ they actually mean AdMob. Now that you know that re-read the passage above substituting ‘AdMob’ for ‘developer’.